Intel’s Atom Chips March 04, 2008

Read more Gadgets , Gizmodo UK , Laptops , Mobile Devices , Technology

We’ve had Pentium and Centrino and now we have the ‘Atom’, Intel's smallest ever processor.

Atom is the brand name Intel has chosen for its new family of tiny, low-power processors designed to drive mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and a new class of cheap, Internet-focused laptops due, en masse, from manufacturers later this year.

There is the Intel Atom processor for sub-notebooks and the Intel Centrino Atom platform, the latter designed to be used inside these pocket-sized MIDs. Intel Centrino Atom contains an Atom processor alongside a low-power companion chip with integrated graphics, and support for WiFi, WiMAX and 3G/HSDPA.

"This is our smallest processor built with the world's smallest transistors," said Intel Executive Vice President and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Sean Maloney. "This small wonder is a fundamental new shift in design, small yet powerful enough to enable a big Internet experience on these new devices. We believe it will unleash new innovation across the industry."

Intel thinks cheap MIDs – costing around £125 - and which it has dubbed ‘netbooks’ are going to be big business. In terms of power consumption, the Atom is quite something, drawing just 0.6-2.5Watts and scaling in speed to 1.8GHz. Intel’s mainstream mobile Core 2 Duo processors consume up to 35Watts.-Martin Lynch

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